McCAIN YIELDS TO PRESSURE AND REPUDIATES HAGEE'S BIGOTRY... SORTA, KINDA

He seems to be enjoying himself

McCain wants his cake and wants to eat it too. He is desperate to hold on to the far right evangelical kooks, represented by witless bigots and hucksters like Hagee and Parsley on the one hand. And he needs to keep from offending mainstream Americans while he prostrates himself before the nut-cases and loons who have come to dominate the GOP coalition in recent years. It all sort of backfired on him last week when all the months and months of sucking up to religious right fanatic John Hagee "paid off" with an endorsement from that anti-Catholic bigot, an endorsement McCain has been choking on ever since.

I was on a conference call with Nancy Pelosi, the highest ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, a few days ago when someone told her about Hagee and McCain and read some of Hagee's vituperative quotes about the Catholic Church. She seemed stunned and unwilling to believe it and said she was sure McCain would repudiate that kind of hate talk. He didn't. She finally joined a growing chorus of mainstream Americans asking McCain to reconsider.

Finally in New Orleans today, just before addressing a secretive far right group of extremists, McCain tried wiggling out of the controversy, distancing himself from Hagee's hate-speech while trying to hold on to Hagee (and his delusional End of Times followers). USAToday reports he came a lot closer to renouncing Hagee.

"We've had a dignified campaign, and I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics," McCain said.

"I sent two of my children to Catholic school. I categorically reject and repudiate any statement that was made that was anti-Catholic, both in intent and nature. I categorically reject it, and I repudiate it," McCain said.

"And we can't have that in this campaign," McCain said. "We're trying to unite the country. We're uniting the country, not dividing it."

It's ironic that McCain made this remark in the midst of courting another far right anti-Catholic bigot, Tim LaHaye, who is every bit as raving mad as Hagee.

“McCain is trying to have it both ways,” said Peter Montgomery, who oversees People For the American Way’s research department and Right Wing Watch blog. “He wants the backing and political muscle of Religious Right leaders, but doesn't want to be associated with their extremism. He runs the risk of alienating Catholics and moderates by pandering for the support of the Religious Right.”

In 1987, LaHaye was famously forced to resign just days after signing up as national co-chair of Jack Kemp’s presidential campaign when the Baltimore Sun revealed numerous anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish statements in LaHaye’s writings. For instance, LaHaye called Catholicism a “false religion” and said the Jews “brought the judgment of God upon themselves and their land” by rejecting Jesus.

Catholics United has applauded McCain's denunciation of Hagee's anti-Catholic agenda. Now they are asking him to also reject his endorsement, like Obama did with Farrakhan. Needless to say, McCain will not ever do that. He's a gutless wonder and wants it both ways.

Damien LaVera, a spokesperson for the DNC makes a good point. "If John McCain doesn't have the integrity to say whether he knew about John Hagee's history of divisive remarks when he sought his endorsement and which of those comments he agrees with, how can voters trust him to change Washington?" After all, McCain semi-repudiated-- he said "IF" Hagee's remarks have offended Catholics-- the anti-Catholic statements. What about Hagee's anti-gay statements, his denigration of African-Americans, his bigoted nonsense of people who read Harry Potter novels, his crazy statements about Jews and his viciously anti-Muslim diatribes? Does McCain agree with him on those-- or does he just figure he only needs the Catholic votes so the hell with the Harry Potter fans and the rest? Jeepers, remember the old John McCain when he was a relatively young man in his 60s and had a bit of moderate in him? Then he denounced these religionist lunatics in no uncertain terms. He even attacked George Bush for getting into bed with the same crew he's embracing now-- people he then claimed were in the "16th century," and who are "racist and cruel." McCain contrasted himself to Bush, saying he would "never do such a thing"-- as accepting the endorsement of these bigots-- and now... well now he can just change his name to John W McBush... or McHagee.